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Backlash begins as Merkel rivals enjoy surge

May 22 2012, 3:01pm, The Times

Angela Merkel at the G8 summit in the United StatesGuido Bergmann/EPA

Suddenly Angela Merkel is not only looking isolated in Europe but vulnerable at home.

The German Chancellor acted swiftly to lance the boil of her party’s worst-ever results in Germany’s largest state election last week, sacking the campaign chief, Norbert Roettgen from his job as Environment Secretary in her Cabinet.

But what would once have been seen as a sure-footed response to the North Rhine-Westphalia setback has been criticised as overly harsh by politicians and the media as Mrs Merkel begins to suffer at home from her international Iron Chancellor image.

The latest opinion polls confirm her worst fears – the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) is enjoying a bounce that now has it running neck and neck with her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).